


every me and every you

by jehobvihosabi



Series: Persona [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Failed Game+, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative, The Phantom Thieves of Hearts didn't uncover Akechi Goro AU (Persona 5), Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-09-30 23:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20455343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jehobvihosabi/pseuds/jehobvihosabi
Summary: I’ll kill you.You’ll die.





	every me and every you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [prosodiical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/prosodiical/gifts).

> You said you liked unconventional, so uh... _enjoy_?

_Pretty lies and promises that couldn’t be kept; he heard them all. And they didn’t mean a thing. _

And this is how it ends.

All his senses narrowed; all that he was capable of taking in— the cool sensation of a gun resting, insistent, against his forehead. He leaned forward, enough to solidify contact, _sighing_ into it, gently gripping the barrel into the softest of holds.

Glancing up, through his lashes, voice hushed— “Will you do it? Will you… _shoot me_?”

A grin glinting in triumph met Akira’s— daring, begging for the _end of everything. If you could grant me just one thing, it’s this, this, this_.

Do _it_. Pull the trigger on me _now_.

_Put an end to this._

Hand held out. “I’m coming for you.”

A faceless figure stood before him.

An offer.

A _trick_.

And he shut his eyes, turned his tired gaze away. Because he already knew, already _knew_ there was no saving him to begin with.

_Don’t lie. Don’t lie. _Don’t lie to me.

A new world revealed itself to him. Akira froze, froze; he froze where he stood. He had seen such sights before. Identical to scenes that painted his dreams. A dream. _It was only a dream._

While Ryuji looked around in awe, Akira fisted his hands, alert— _always alert_. For he knew._ He wasn’t safe, and he wouldn’t be saved_.

It was a dream. <del>It was reality.</del>

Effortlessly familiar.

Recognition burned its path down, down, _down_ and— _oh_ it was unignorable.

It’s you, you, _you_.

Smiling falsely all the way, gaze stuck under the weight of it— _unmovable_— rooted to where he stood, he practised denseness.

He could see the curiosity in his eyes; they reflected Goro’s own.

_It’s always been you_.

“There’s nothing inside.”

_We have that in common._

“Is there a way… for me to break?”

_Don’t tempt me. _

The detective approached him— _for the first time, for the last time_— and Akira grinned, wide and mocking. _I know why you’re here. Why you approached me._

_I know who you are_.

The smile plastered on the other’s face— it was a lie, lie— _all you ever do is lie_. Tugging at him, something came to life, flicking faintly, and so— His hand reached forward— _chasing that flame_— to lightly caress the soft skin underneath an eye, reaching for something already familiar, already _known_.

The figure underneath his hand froze, but Akira only moved closer, closer, and closer still, until lips brushed against the delicate shell of an ear.

A soft exhale and then, “You can’t _hide_ from me.”

He stated the words simply but the look the detective held after the statement was anything but. A war raged a fever in the minute shifts and flares over stiff features and Akira only smiled in his own practised way, pretending he hadn’t said a thing.

So this is how it _was_. So this is how it’d _be_.

Sing them for all to hear. But I won’t. Not _again_. I don’t hear a thing. It’s all you do and I don’t hear a thing.

_ <del>What do you want from me?</del> _

<del>I can’t tell you how to see me.</del>

Let’s meet at the masquerade. We’ll dance together under the shadows cast by twirling crystal chandeliers. In a world with only us.

_They were together, but still, somehow, he felt alone._

Let me hide out with you. Don’t need to see. Don’t unmask me. Don’t reveal my ugliness. _Don’t unmask me. _Oh, oh, _oh no_, anything but _that_.

Hide out with me in the world where _only we_ reside. You’re the only reflection I want to see.

Who I truly am?

Keep me warm tonight. Ward off the chill that haunts me.

I need.

Who am I?

I _need_.

_They were together, but still, somehow, he felt alone._

Every second, every minute— fated— written into the stars of this world; it’s only been you, o n l y y o u.

You.

You.

_You._

He never told them— never told anyone— about the familiarity he felt whenever he entered the Metaverse. It followed (wouldn’t leave him alone). Endlessly, endlessly still, dreams— _spectres of things that _never_ occurred_— haunted (wouldn’t leave him alone).

Premonitions came true, and he was running out of time.

_Again and again, they spun this web._

Without fail, always, _always _buzzing in his ear— “Do you want to go to the Metaverse today?” Through the cold sweat— _again and again, they spun this web_— Akira faked a grin.

What should he do? _Oh_, what to _do_?

Everything going down in flames. Preventable. <del>Inevitable.</del> How could he, prevent, _prevent this from happening again_?

Because of course, Akira knew the ending to this miserable tale.

Oh, how could he ever _forget_?

(Shadows haunt).

It wasn’t all bad— at least— not when they were _alone <del>together</del>_.

He knew he was a fool. To let his guard down. But. How could he. Have helped himself.

A fool. A fool. Akira was a fool.

He didn’t know what he was doing. All he knew was that he was _doing it all_ _wrong._ The only time things made sense was when he wasn’t aware of anything at all.

_Why was it. Only up to him?_

Only him?

The beating of his heart finally steadied into something resembling a coherent rhythm. He faded into dreams.

This time, when Goro held out his hand, Akira grasped it.

He didn’t let go. He didn’t let go. Oh, why hadn’t he

just.

_let. _

_go_?

_The start of the road to ruin was held in the hand that grasped his own. And he didn’t feel a thing._

Pull the trigger.

Trigger. Trigger. Pull the trigger on me _now_. Say you want to. Say the words I’m dying to hear.

_Kill. me_.

_Unleash me. _

_Burn it all down _

_and bury me in the ashes._

Put an end to everything. Every me and every you; _extinguish it all_.


End file.
